by Bruce Cain (21 articles, 0 quicklinks, 6 diaries, 99 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 12:33:55 PM

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Democrats, Republicans. Chris Dodd, John McCain, Obama - they have all had their hand in the till one way or the other. They and Bush will continue to bail out their buddies in the name of saving the economy. Whatever happened to letting poorly run, dishonest businesses just go down the toilet? I sure don't see anyone lining up to help me with the mortgage on my home that I can no longer afford. As usual, the politicians of both parties are in it solely to enhance their comfort and and their bank accounts. One way or the other, any of them that have proposed this or vote in favor of it will be benefitting. GET RID OF ALL OF THEM.

by Tom Dawson (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 17 comments [6 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 12:50:50 PM

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Hi Tom can you please provide some reference and/or link as to the proof that  Obama also has his hand in the till. I understand the link and connections between Republican John McCain and Republican Phil Gramm and how they made millions on the degregulation of financial companies, but I am not getting the Obama link that you are refering to in any imaginary way.

by E. Nelson (40 articles, 8 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 511 comments [57 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 12:47:05 AM

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Here is my only concern about this massive bailout. I understand the potential catastrophic financial collapse. And I understand the rationale being pitched by Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke and clearly no one wants a complete global meltdown economically. It would be the worst depression the world would ever see and the children and poor of the worlds would suffer many fold more than they already are.

The problem I have is the Bush Administration loves to apply the "Shock Doctrine" to everything. They sold the Iraq war using the "Shock Doctrine" by making us believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was an imminent threat to the U.S. They use the "Shock Doctrine" in Katrina to pull off a massive redistribution of wealth and political power in the state of Louisiana.

Now we are again accepting the story that Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, George Bush and the Republican party are giving us. We were days away from a complete financial meltdown if they had not acted promptly with a massive bailout. Were we that close to a complete collapse? Was a massive bailout of this scope needed? How do we believe anything the Republican leadership tells us anymore?

by E. Nelson (40 articles, 8 quicklinks, 26 diaries, 511 comments [57 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 1:22:28 PM

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The volatility last week was an example of financial terrorism, the purpose being to get people to accept the bailouts.  At the end of the day, the DOW lost 33 points last week, and the USD since last August is up 10%.

We should declare most of the CEO's on Wall Street and the Fed as enemy combatants, and send them all to GITMO for questioning, and don't forget Sir Bubbles himself. 

Instead we have a War to Save Computerized Derivative Traders.  The winners of these derivatives bets want to be paid.  The losers can not pay.  Rather than declare all bets null and void, we seek to pay the losers bad bets so the winners can collect.  This is nuts.  These bets created nothing but fictitous capital and contributed nothing to the real economy, except volotility in commodities and forex markets.  In fact, the winners do not even have to pay income tax like gamblers do, they call the winnings capital gains which get paid at a lower rate.

by pft (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 601 comments [7 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 5:36:14 PM

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what about Dennis Kucinich? I live in Cleveland OH and live in Dennis Kucinich's district. Dennis speaks about impeachment, so you say, well they will be out of office with in the next year..How about "High crimes and miscdemeanors? Dennis has been speaking about this and the "so called Democrat senators, and reps, disagree, except for Mr Wexler. Nobody in the government, except for Kucinich and Wexler have the integrity and "guts" to argue for this. So , please make sure that you know that there are at least two representatives that are not afraid of what the Republicans and the frightened leaders of the Democrats think.

by Suzi (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 1:53:09 PM

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The day after Dennis entered his list of 35 impeachable offenses into congress, I had him on my radio show, and a few weeks later, had Robert Wexler. The two of them stand out as heroes amidst a crowd of, well, non-heroes.

by Rob Kall (952 articles, 4177 quicklinks, 374 diaries, 2087 comments [45 recommended, 3 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 3:06:31 PM

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The cause of the near-collapse of worldwide credit markets this week is not complicated. In my opinion it's devastatingly simple.

But, just as Voldemort was referred to as "he-who-shall-not-be-named" in JK Rowling's famed Harry Potter books, almost no one seems to have the backbone to name the simple cause of our economic meltdown: Debt Addiction.

There. I said it. And I'm still alive and unharmed.

We have become a society, no a planet, of debt addicts. Consumer debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt and government debt.

Debt addiction and inventing money out of thin air has become so commonplace that we are now dominated by an economic system that is neither capitalism nor socialism. It is Debtism. Or, if you prefer, Debtonomics. Whichever you call it, this profoundly dangerous and utterly unsustainable economic system has replaced capitalism, in the United States and abroad.

Debtism relies on two very simple but utterly unsustainable requirements: 1) Stimulating economic expansion; and 2) Borrowing money against the future earnings that are expected as a result of economic expansion.

An economic system that relies on these greed-based requirements isn't merely doomed to fail. It IS currently failing... before our very eyes.

Despite the devastation it is causing, the Debtism economic system on which the US and countries now operate continues to be "that-which-shall-not-be-named."

Do not trust any politician, banker, economist or media pundit who claims to understand, or wants to do something about, our current financial mess UNLESS they have a clear understanding of Debtism and the absolute necessity of freeing ourselves from its enslavement.

You can read my entire post on this topic through my IntegrityWatch Blog. Go to www.TheNewIQ.com and click on "Blog" in the top menu.

Thank you for being an integrity spark,
David Gruder, PhD, DCEP
www.TheNewIQ.com

Psychologist, Integrity Analyst and Integrity Development Specialist, and multiple-award-winning author of "The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World"

by David Gruder (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 7:10:34 PM

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Even though the Republicans are the most odious of the odious, I agree that the Democrats are worthy of contempt for their pathetic performance since January 2007. The Democrats have not had a decisive majority in Congress, but their real problem is a lack of will to use their substantial leverage to change the disastrous course charted by the Republicans. Now that the Bush Administration wants something from Congress, and now that the totally corrupt Republicans in Congress want something from the Democrats in Congress, the Democrats are so complicit in the corruption of our political system that the Democrats will hold us down while the Bush Administration rams a broomstick up our ass.

I sent the following letter to Vermont's two Senators and lone House Representative:

I am writing this letter to each member of Vermont's congressional delegation to express my profound opposition to the Bush Administration's plan to transfer up to one trillion dollars in bad debt from financial institutions to American taxpayers. What is most unacceptable about this proposal is that there will continue to be no accountability for the financial mess created by greed on the part of those who will benefit from the Bush Administration strategy, and the Bush Administration is rejecting any meaningful reform of the thoroughly corrupt financial services industry that engineered this financial disaster.

Vermont's congressional delegation has consistently maintained a standard of integrity that is sorely lacking among a majority of your colleagues. Because the American public should have learned a lesson when we were raped by the Republicans and Democrats in Congress during the Savings and Loan scandal, the American taxpayer shares part of the blame by electing people who were responsible for creating a climate of lawlessness in the financial markets. The most prominent financial institutions operating in the United States are the most modern version of organized crime, and far too many members of Congress (Republicans and Democrats) are their willing partners in crime.

It should be well known to every member of Congress that tax cuts on unearned income helped subsidize the excessively risky financial speculation that has brought us to the brink of financial ruin. If there must be some form of government rescue of the financial institutions which have engaged in such reckless and criminal behavior, the American public must receive some valuable concessions, in the form of significantly higher taxes for the already affluent people who will benefit from this blackmail by the financial services industry, and in the form of strict regulations to prevent counterproductive and damaging financial manipulation (such as, but not limited to, bundling worthless derivatives with legitimate investments and short-selling stocks). If the additional tax revenues, derived from the many criminals who operate the financial services industry, were directed specifically toward repair and maintenance of our deteriorating infrastructure, it would help offset the damage inflicted on the American public, and something positive would result from this financial crisis (which could have been prevented so easily).

by Blaine Kinsey (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 181 comments [80 recommended, 8 rejected]) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 8:54:17 PM

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Mr. Kall, You've studied psychology. It's fairly well know that if people with suicidal, drug-addictive, and co-dependant traits can get past a certain age, say 30 to 40, their likelihood of surviving 'themselves' increases dramatically.

So Americans are carrying our nation's foreign policy on the back of our credit cards. We're buying off the Chinese with massive debt in order for the Chinese to get past their bellicose phase. We're buying off the Islamic countries with petrodollars so that maybe they''ll get past their suicidal phase.

In the meantime we have to placate people; give people something to chew on. We've done this with wars in Iraq to oust a dictator. He fired missiles into Israel and he used chemical warfare on the Kurds. Put those two together and that's why we invaded. He also didn't have any friends. WMD was a cover story.

by ScottC 1676867503 (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Saturday, Sep 20, 2008 at 10:01:41 PM

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Rob said: "Haven't these legislators learned anything? How dare they sit on their hands and twiddle their thumbs and allow  the most incompetent, worst president in history to run this show and manage this crisis. 

Any mistakes that are made, any fraud or corruption that comes out of these Paulson/Bernanke decisions made under Bush's supervision should be 100% blamed upon Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the Democratic leadership in congress. "

 Hmm. It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that so many of these senators and representatives own stock in these failing corporations, could it? Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

 http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aSEtGBXG0C0s&refer=worldwide

by Ron R. (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 152 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 3:03:52 AM

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...is the production of jobs in the U.S. which pay enough for people to live on, and, perhaps, extensive gov't owned passenger rail systems to get people to work (or cheap oil again, take your pick).  Which, it seems to me, is the opposite of what got us into this mess in the first place.  Am I wrong?

by Jill Herendeen (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 213 comments [13 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 6:53:35 AM

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 Agree with you Rob and I include the FISA vote in the use of scare legislation. We (Bushies) know what you don't know and it's very scary,to much for you little people to grasp but not to pay for.

AIG was, in the end, insuring more mortgage fraud and less tangible goods  not the exact definition of insurance. Now we taxpayers own 80% of this trashed company?

The housing market was inflated by half until that is understood and unwound we will still leave a toxic economic waste land for future generations. 

by tjb (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 255 comments [9 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 8:37:58 AM

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I woke up in the night wondering about our sanity. How many of us would return to the doctor who had committed malpractice on a family member to heal the illness?  How about asking a carpenter who had failed to build our home square to correct the problem?  These are the people and the institutions who created this nightmare.  What could possibly make anyone think that they are capable of correcting the mess?  Either they are so stupid that we are in the situation in the first place or their behaviour is intentional.  In any case, only a complete nitwit would expect them to be able to present an adequate solution.

by J.B. Abbott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 9 comments [3 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 10:35:58 AM

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@ Bruce Cain:

"I have to laugh because all those that have talked about a North American Union, and such, are not yet talking about the fact that this Corporate Bailout sets the stage for exactly what they have predicted.  The Fed is running those "dollar" printing presses non-stop to the tune of Trillions of dollars.  This will spur hyper-inflation making it nearly impossible for the Working Class to survive.  Retirees will see the value of their hard earned savings deflate in value and make it impossible for them to survive economically."

I believe you're right about 'setting the stage' for the NAU. But a fair number of folks elsewhere on the web are pointing this out. You are certainly right about the Working Class (low and middle).

This debacle has been, I firmly believe, a well-planned attack designed along the traditional model of 'problem creation, reaction and solution' and is, in that sense, as some above have pointed out, financial terrorism. Planned and executed by the global financial/NWO elite. See also Larisa Alexandrovna's article on the subject for a significant implication of this stage-managed event.

Yes, a way of making money for the bastards but more importantly, a necessary step in 'moving the agenda along'.

As far as Obama goes, as discussed elsewhere above, it is trivial to accuse him of having his hand in the financial 'money bin'. The agenda in which he plays a role is likely much more significant than simply money. 

by richard (0 articles, 5 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 1359 comments [399 recommended, 8 rejected]) on Sunday, Sep 21, 2008 at 9:11:39 AM

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